Mom accused of biting son held for trial on lesser charges (video)

A Sharon Hill mother accused of biting her 23-month-old son in 2011 and leaving as many as 30 lesions all over his body, is now facing trial on a lesser simple assault offense following a preliminary hearing last week.

Yaasmiyn Stradford-Coleman was additionally held for endangering welfare of children, though Magisterial District Judge David Videon dismissed both aggravated assault and reckless endangerment offenses at the conclusion of Tuesday’s two-hour hearing.

“I was very happy that aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person were withdrawn. I agree with the judge and (Delaware County Deputy District Attorney) Michael Galantino did a very good job,” Arik T. Benari, Stradford-Coleman’s defense attorney, said Thursday. “What’s good is we’ve got two lawyers who really care about getting to the truth and not just about a win at the cost of the family’s well-being.”

Benari had some harsh words for Delaware County Children and Youth Services Agency, on whose recommendation an investigation against his client got under way in November 2011.

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“I think the whole thing is a witch hunt by CYS,” he said, adding that he found some information in the affidavit of probable cause hard to follow, let alone build a criminal case upon.

“In my opinion, there was information that didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

As an example, he wants to know why throughout the lengthy investigation the child in question would have been taken from his client and then returned to his client, on more than one occasion, if there were serious concerns about her parenting. He added that his client has an older son who has never exhibited any problems.

“This is a woman who is highly educated,” he said. “It just seemed the assumption from day one was she must be hurting the kid, instead of assuming she’s a good mother until proving otherwise.”

Stradford-Coleman remains free on 10 percent of $75,000 bail. She is permitted supervised visits with her young son, who is in CYS custody and living in foster care, Benari said.

Galantino presented testimony from key witnesses at the hearing, including county Detective Adam Sendek, who led the investigation that began Nov. 8, 2011, after Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia referred the defendant’s case to CYS. Other witnesses who took the stand included Dr. June Elcock-Messam, a pediatrician whose expertise is child abuse, and Molly Thompson, a supervising social worker from CYS.

Stradford-Coleman was accused of biting her son, leaving as many as 30 lesions all over his body that she insisted to physicians at CHOP were the result of an undiagnosed medical condition, according to a criminal complaint that was filed May 17.

According to the document, the injury patterns found on the boy “correlates to the teeth” of Stradford-Coleman. Her dental impressions were taken as part of the investigation, which spanned 18 months and included multiple consultations with medical experts.

Throughout the investigation, CYS has been monitoring the boy’s welfare and for a period of time earlier in the probe, had placed him with a relative, a source previously told the Daily Times, sister paper to The Mercury. The boy was back at home on Dec. 6, 2012, when, according to court documents, a CYS official examined some new bruising on his body. At this point, the boy had turned 3.

“Mommy bit me,” he told the CYS official, according to the affidavit of probable cause for arrest written by Sendek of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division and Detective Richard Herron Jr. of the Sharon Hill Police Department.

When the boy was asked to mark a pair of 8-inch-by-11-inch drawings of a young boy’s anatomy with a crayon to show where he’d been bitten by his mother, he marked 12 spots, the affidavit states.

According to the affidavit, the child was treated at CHOP back in November 2011 for buttocks swelling that was thought to be an infection. In addition to having “multiple markings of different sizes, including bite marks,” the child had “hematoma bruising on his buttocks and blood in the white of his eyes.”

At the time, Stradford-Coleman told the hospital her son had a previous sprain in his left thigh. In reporting the case to CYS, a CHOP physician determined the boy’s injuries were “non-accidental,” the affidavit states.

More specifically, according to the affidavit, a CHOP physician found “oval and circular lesions all over his body, including arms, chest, legs and diaper area around his penis and buttocks.” Additionally, the boy had bluish spots on his feet.

According to the affidavit, a CHOP physician also noted that Stradford-Coleman had previously taken her son to Delaware County Memorial Hospital on Nov. 11, 2011, “due to an unknown rash,” which the child’s primary physician had diagnosed as cellulitis.

Ultimately, a team at CHOP determined the marks found on the boy’s body were human bite marks, and other injuries were attributed to other non-accidental trauma, according to the affidavit.

Citing CYS documentation, the affidavit states that Stradford-Coleman said she was her son’s primary caregiver and no one had unsupervised contact with him since the marks appeared on his body. Though CYS later determined the child spent unsupervised time with three other adults, there are no charges pending against anyone else, according to a source.

In July 2012, Dr. Sheila D. Dashkow, a dentist certified in forensics, notified the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office that she had reviewed 30 photographs of the skin lesions on the boy’s body taken when he was being treated at CHOP. “Dashkow saw gross characteristics to be considered a pattern injury consistent with a human bite into skin,” the affidavit states.

Stradford-Coleman’s dental impressions were taken Dec. 3, 2012, after investigators obtained a search warrant for two sets of diagnostic models. The warrant also covered a set of orthodontic photographs. Within four days, the evidence was delivered to Dashkow’s office.

On May 14, Dashkow notified Galantino about the results of her comparison.

“Dr. Dashkow’s assessment is that the patterned injury on the child victim correlates to the teeth of Yaasmiyn Stradford-Coleman. The incisal edges of her upper canine teeth would have been able to produce the type of injuries seen on the child victim,” the affidavit states.

According to her LinkedIn.com page, Stradford-Coleman is a mental health professional whose previous employers include Interact, Devereux and Community Council in Philadelphia. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cheyney University in 2005, and a master’s in counseling psychology with elementary/secondary guidance certification from Immaculata University in 2009. Additionally, she was a guidance counselor intern at Delcroft Elementary School between January and April in 2009; an alternative program clinical intern at Academy Park High School from December 2008 through April 2009; and a secondary guidance counselor intern at Academy Park from August through November in 2008.

Noting that Stradford-Coleman is currently working toward a doctorate in child special education, Benari said. “She’s lost time working on her dissertation to deal with this.”